EU announces winners of the EU Social DigiThon Competition
EU announces winners of the EU Social DigiThon Competition
The Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Indonesia, in partnership with the Indonesian Internet of Things (IOT) Association (ASIOTI), announced four winners of the EU Social DigiThon Competition. The winners, according to their rank, are DukaEuy Team with the “Anti-Violence Bracelet”, UntukIbu Team with the “Journal for Pregnant Women”, Yudhis Thiro Kabul Yunior with the “DTRON Smart Chair”, and Solutioner Team with the “E-Learning for People with Disabilities (ELAIS)”.
This year’s EU Social DigiThon Competition, themed “Youth Action for Change”, had looked for three winning proposals, but in the end selected four. The reason for this the high quality of proposals received, with two teams’ concepts ranking in third place ex aequo.
“With this contest we aim to create links between digital information, technology, solutions to social and human rights issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said EU Ambassador to Indonesia, H.E. Vincent Piket. “Through the EU Social DigiThon Competition, we also wish to build links with Indonesian youth. We received a tremendous response with young people using their creativity and critical thinking for solving real-life issues in their own environment with self-made solutions,” added Ambassador Piket.
The four winners were chosen out of 196 proposals submitted in a contest that asked for responses to challenges faced by women and girls, youth and children, and people with disabilities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The panel of judges was composed of four persons, namely Andy Yentriyani, Commissioner of Komnas Perempuan; Fita Indah Maulani, Secretary General of ASIOTI; Saiti Gusrini, Program Manager Human Rights/Democracy at the EU Delegation to Indonesia; and Marco Bonetti, Political Officer at the EU Delegation to Indonesia. The criteria used by the judges were: socio-economic benefits, originality of the idea, the level of creativity, and the expected impacts.
Commissioner of Komnas Perempuan, Andy Yentriyani, stated, “The proposal we received were varied and interesting. We are looking for ideas for solutions that are really needed by vulnerable groups to make their lives easier in the midst of this pandemic situation. Apart from having a real impact in protecting, enhancing dignity, and creating inclusiveness for target users, this solution should not create new problems as a result of its use."
Secretary General of ASIOTI, Fita Indah Maulani, added, “The panel saw a number of proposals that are already advanced enough to be materialised as a prototype, and even some with potentials for commercialisation. We are also impressed by the creativity shown in the mixed use of IoT to strengthen functions in their solutions. I hope that these winners can continue to develop their solutions, so that the positive impact can be felt directly by the community.”
Winners are entitled to seed grants to turning their ideas into reality. The first prize and second prize winners will receive a grant of IDR 50 million and IDR 30 million respectively. The two teams that came in third position will each receive a grant of IDR 20 million. The four winners will also participate in a mentoring programme led by experts from the EU.
WINNERS’ PROFILE
EU SOCIAL DIGITHON COMPETITION
1st Place
Team: DukaEuy
Team Leader: Muhammad Sulthan Mazaya
Project: “Gelang Anti Kekerasan” (Anti-Violence Bracelet)
Topic Category: Solution for Women and Girls
This team consists of 3 students from Bandung Institute of Technology in West Java: Sulthan, Michael and Daniel. The Anti-Violence Bracelet aims to address the high rate of violence against women. The bracelet is an IoT instrument and covering all protocols for emergency safety, including external loud-speaker, the possibility to send emergency message to all important contacts and sound recording, which might be used as evidence to support a victim’s report to authorities.
2nd Place
Team: Untuk Ibu (For Mothers)
Team Leader: Jones Napoleon Autumn
Project: “Untuk Ibu: Pusat Kesehatan dan Jurnal Pendamping Kehamilan Wanita Indonesia” (Journal for Pregnant Women)
Topic Category: Solution for Women and Girls
This team consists of 2 university students: Jones Napoleon Autumn from the Department of Informatics who is also a software engineer and Zefania Praventia Sutrisno, a Chemical Engineering student who acts as the project manager. They understand the complications faced by pregnant women during the time of pandemic especially in terms of health service access. They created Untuk Ibu, a mobile application that functions both as center for data and information, and includes features to help pregnant women’s journey to prepare for delivery – this includes recommended hospitals/health centers, pregnancy journal, information about midwives nearby, swab test points, and integrated information on national insurance service (universal healthcare service).
3rd Place ex aequo
Team: Yudhis Thiro Kabul Yunior and Fattaa Septian Dwi Cahyo.
Team Leader: Yudhis Thiro Kabul Yunior
Project: “DTRON Smart Chair”
Topic Category: Solution for People with Disabilities
The team consists of two members Yudhis Thiro Kabul Yunior and Fattaa Septian Dwi Cahyo. Their solution, named DTRON Smart Chair, offers additional capacities as compared to a normal wheelchair. They equip the wheelchair with Voice Recognition System, Eye Navigation System & Manual Control System using Android Smartphone with Integrated Artificial Intelligence concept. With support from these systems, wheelchair users could enjoy increased mobility.
3rd Place ex aequo
Team: Solutioner
Team Leader: Alfan Adi Chandra
Project: “Aplikasi E-Learning untuk Penyandang Disabilitas, Sensorik Berbasis Artificial Intelligence (ELAIS)" (E-Learning for People with Disabilities)
Topic Category: Solution for People with Disabilities
This team consists of Software Engineering students from Telkom Institute of Technology in Purwokerto Central Java: Vincent Nathaniel, Rifqi Akmal Saputra and Alfan Adi Chandra. Their idea sparked after witnessing challenges faced by people with disabilities during online learning. The E-learning application is Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based and helps people with sensory disabilities to optimally participate in online learning. This technology converts sign language into text, and includes special audio to help those who are visually impaired.